Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

4. There is farther, a rising and swelling of the Heart against the Will of God. (1.) Internal. Gods Law cast against a hard Heart, is like a Ball thrown against a stone Wall, by reason of the resistance rebounding the further from it: The meeting of a Divine Truth and the Heart of Man, is like the meeting of two Tides, the weaker swells and foams: We have a natural Antipathy against a Divine Rule; and therefore when it is clapped close to our Consciences, there is a snuffing at it, high reasonings against it, corruption breaks out more strongly: As Water poured on Lime sets it on Fire by an Antiperistasis, and the more Water is cast upon it, the more furiously it burns: Or as the Sun Beams shining upon a Dung-hill makes the steams the thicker and the stench the noysomer, neither being the positive cause of the smoke in the Lime, or the stench in the Dung-hill; but by accident the causes of the eruption, Rom. 7.8. But Sin taking occasion by the Commandment, wrought in me all manner of Concupiscence, for without the Law Sin was dead. Sin was in a languishing posture, as if it were dead; like a lazy Garrison in a City, till upon an Alarm from the Adversary it takes Arms and revives its courage; all the sin in the heart gathers together its force, to maintain its standing; like the vapours of the Night, which unite themselves more closely to resist the Beams of the rising Sun. Deep Conviction often provokes fierce Opposition; sometimes Disputes against a Divine Rule end in Blasphemies, Acts 13.45. Contradicting and Blaspheming are coupled together. Men naturally desire things that are forbidden, and reject things commanded, from the corruption of Nature, which affects an unbounded Liberty, and is impatient of returning under that Yoke it hath shaken off; and therefore rageth against the bars of the Law, as the Waves roar against the restraint of a bank: When the Understanding is dark and the Mind Ignorant, Sin lies as dead;^* [a man scarce knows he hath such Motions of Concupiscence in him, he finds not the least breath of Wind but a full calm in his Soul;

4. There is farther, a rising and swelling of the Heart against the Will of God. (1.) Internal. Gods Law cast against a hard Heart, is like a Ball thrown against a stone Wall, by reason of the resistance rebounding the further from it: The meeting of a Divine Truth and the Heart of Man, is like the meeting of two Tides, the weaker swells and foams: We have a natural Antipathy against a Divine Rule; and therefore when it is clapt close to our Consciences, there is a snuffing at it, high reasonings against it, corruption breaks out more strongly: As Water poured on Lime sets it on Fire by an Antiperistasis, and the more Water is cast upon it, the more furiously it burns: Or as the Sun Beams shining upon a Dung-hill makes the steams the thicker and the stench the noysomer, neither being the positive cause of the smoke in the Lime, or the stench in the Dung-hill; but by accident the causes of the eruption,